Technically and mathematically, the Spurs clinched nothing Saturday night.
They moved a game above .500 and up to ninth place in the Western Conference with a 110-108 victory in New Orleans at the Smoothie King Center.
Nobody pops champagne bottles for that.
Still, it was a big win in perhaps the Spurs’ most consequential remaining game, one that solidifies their bid to play at least one extra game once the regular season ends.
DeMar DeRozan scored 32 points in his return from a thigh contusion, including a run of nine straight during a nip-and-tuck close to the fourth quarter.
Derrick White added 22 points and Jakob Poeltl matched a career best with five blocks as the Spurs (30-29) outlasted Zion Williamson and the Pelicans (26-34) down the stretch.
The victory nudged the Spurs five games ahead of 11th-place New Orleans in the loss column, and gave the Spurs the head-to-head tiebreaker.
It is an important distinction this season, in which teams finishing seventh through 10th will enter a play-in tournament for the conference’s final two playoff seeds.
If the Spurs go even 6-7 over their final 13 games, New Orleans would need to go 11-1 to overtake them.
The victory was the Spurs’ fourth in the past five games. It came despite 33 points and 14 rebounds from Williamson and 24 points apiece from Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball.
It might be the last quote-unquote “easy” victory the Spurs can hope to pocket this season. Of the Spurs’ 13 remaining contests, only two come against teams with a losing record.
One of them comes Monday in Washington, against a red-hot Wizards team that has — somewhat inexplicably — won seven in a row.
Victories are going to be difficult for the Spurs to come by against the most difficult closing schedule in the NBA. They bought themselves a large bit of cushion by winning in New Orleans on Saturday.
Here are three takeaways from the Spurs’ big win in the Big Easy:
It’s time to start doubling DeRozan in the clutch
DeRozan ranks among the top five players in the NBA in “clutch points,” which the league defines as coming in the final five minutes of a game that is within a five-point margin.
He had 111 this season coming into Saturday’s game, then added nine more against the Pelicans.
The biggest came with 34.2 seconds to go, when DeRozan stepped back and drilled a mid-range jumper over the Pelicans’ Naji Marshall to give the Spurs a 108-105 edge.
The fact that DeRozan was allowed to work one-on-one against an undrafted rookie on a two-way contract in what was also an important game to New Orleans is somewhat baffling.
Pelicans coach Stan Van Gundy isn’t alone in declining to double-team DeRozan when the chips are down.
Despite DeRozan’s clutch scoring prowess, teams are generally letting him operate on an island down the stretch.
After DeRozan won an April 11 game against Dallas with a jumper similar to the one he nailed over Marshall, Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle publicly second-guessed himself for not calling for a double team.
Other coaches are failing to learn from Carlisle’s admitted mistake.
Jakob Poeltl is German for Dikembe Mutombo, apparently
The Spurs’ 25-year-old center is on a shot-blocking tear.
Including the five he registered in New Orleans, Poeltl has totaled 14 blocks in the past three games.
The 7-foot Austrian has 30 in April, second in the league behind New York’s Nerlens Noel in that span.
Poeltl’s 104 blocks this season are a career best, and rank sixth in the NBA.
After Saturday’s Poeltl-led block party, coach Gregg Popovich said the Spurs “would be in bad shape defensively if it wasn’t for Jakob Poeltl.”
Poeltl had the lion’s share of the Spurs’ eight blocks at New Orleans, with backup Drew Eubanks supplying two.
Derrick White logged a rejection that could have gone to Poeltl, when both players met Jaxson Hayes at the rim in the fourth quarter.
It turns out White was the only one to prevent Poeltl from setting a new career best in the block department.
Free throws still matter
The Spurs controlled the game for most of the night and led by as many as 11 points in the third quarter, but they still found themselves in a back-and-forth game down the stretch.
The Pelicans, meanwhile, had to be kicking themselves for not doing more to pull away.
New Orleans’ 20 turnovers led to 23 points for the Spurs. That was not helpful.
The Pelicans also left 15 points on the floor at the foul line, going 17 of 32.
In any other area, shooting 53.1 percent is a good thing. Hitting at that clip from the free-throw line proved disastrous for New Orleans.
It was low even for the Pelicans, the NBA’s second-most errant foul-shooting team.
Williamson went 7 of 13 from the line on an otherwise dominant night.
Contrast that with the Spurs, who also had 32 free-throw tries but made 27.
DeRozan made all 12 of his attempts en route to his ninth 30-point outing of the season.
Even Poeltl — who has quietly shaken his free-throw yips from earlier in the season — was a perfect 2 of 2.
Keldon Johnson (2 of 4) and Drew Eubanks (6 of 9) were the only Spurs players to miss from the foul line Saturday.
In a tight game, the Spurs’ plus-12 advantage from the charity stripe was decisive.
Jeff McDonald reported from San Antonio.
jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN
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